Appleton Wiske
Appleton Wiske is a small
village and
civil parish that sits between
Northallerton and
Yarm in the
Vale of York; a flat tract of land that runs between the
North Yorkshire Moors to the east, the
Yorkshire Dales to the west and the
River Tees to the north.
The village, which was known as Apletona in the
Domesday Book, eventually took the name of the nearby
River Wiske to distinguish itself from other Appletons in the area, such as
Appleton-Le-Moore. The river does not actually run through the village itself, passing about half a mile to the south on its meandering journey to the larger
River Swale.
There are four roads out of Appleton Wiske, each leading to a neighbouring village or hamlet. The road north leads to the tiny community of
Picton while the road to the east - after crossing the branch railway line connecting
Teesside to the
East Coast Main Line - leads to
West Rounton. Heading out of the village to the west the road runs up a small hill known locally as Cheesecake, which briefly follows the course of a minor Roman road, before passing through
Hornby and into
Great Smeaton. The southerly road forks, passing through Welbury on the eastern branch and through
Deighton and on to Northallerton on the western one.
Appleton Wiske - today just a tiny
parish within the
Hambleton District of
North Yorkshire - is actually one of the 41 ancient parishes of the
Wapentake of
Langbaurgh in the
Cleveland division of the
North Riding of Yorkshire. It was also a part of the sessional division of
Yarm.
The parish was gifted by
William the Conqueror to
Robert de Brus of Skelton, an ancestor of
Robert the Bruce, the famous Scottish king. De Brus's son gave it to St. Mary's Abbey,
York, along with
Hornby and other lands. It remained in the possession of the St. Mary's until the dissolution of monasteries, when it was granted by
Henry VIII to
Charles Brandon, who later became the
Duke of Suffolk. The parish then passed though several hands and was finally split up in the early 19th century after the death of Robert Henry Allan, whose family had owned the parish since the early 18th century.
The village is thought to date back to
Saxon times and, as already mentioned, is referred to in the
Domesday Book as Apletona. The village church is not quite as old - the first reference to it is in 1299, when
Edward I visited and heard mass.
Parish records indicate that it was being called The
Chapel of St
Mary Magdalen in Appleton by
1586. It is a small Norman structure, consisting of nave, chancel and porch.
The traditional source of revenue in Appleton is from farming, though weaving enjoyed a brief ascendancy during the
industrial revolution. Records show that 200
looms were in operation in
1850, but the industry had almost completely disappeared by
1900. The modern population of the village still includes a fair share of farmers and farm workers, but nowadays most people commute to jobs in nearby towns, such as Northallerton,
Darlington and
Middlesbrough.
Today the village boasts, in addition to the church, a
primary school, a
village hall, a petrol station and garage, a general store and two pubs: The
Lord Nelson and the
Shorthorn Inn. The Nelson sits in the centre of the village, fronted by a small green, and is divided into a public bar and lounge, in traditional fashion. The Shorthorn lies on the edge of the village and is known locally for its good food, attracting the Sunday lunch crowd from far and wide.
The village's recreation field comprises a football pitch, a cricket square and pavilion, and two tennis courts.
In
2004 the village won the award for the Village of the
Britain in Bloom competition.
